Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Nuclear power contributed around 16% of the UK’s electricity in 2020.
Conclusion
Nuclear power contributed around 16% of the UK’s electricity in 2020. As at January 2022, five of the seven AGR stations and the Pressurised Water Reactor at Sizewell B are the only nuclear power stations in the UK currently generating electricity; two of the AGRs, Dungeness B and Hunterston B, closed in June 2021 and January 2022 respectively. A further station is expected to close in 2022, two more in 2024 and the remaining two in 2028. All of the AGR stations will close by 2028, with only Sizewell B and the new station at Hinkley Point C expected to be operating nuclear power stations at that point.30 We inquired whether the lives of the operational AGR stations could be extended as we wait for new generating capacity to come online. EDFE told us that when it bought the AGR stations in 2009 it invested a further £6 billion into extending their operating lives. It explained that it was working closely with the regulator to decide how much longer stations could operate to produce as much electricity as possible from the stations. But it noted that the stations were reaching the technical limits of running safely, having extended the original design life of these stations from 25 to over 40 years. It explained that it had “put in absolutely as much money as they [the stations] can usefully use in terms of the technical limitation” and it was confident that no further investment would allow the stations to be used for longer.31
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
3: PAC conclusion: The terms of the 2009 sale of the nuclear stations agreed by the Department with EDFE placed a disproportionate amount of risk for meeting future decommissioning costs on the taxpayer. 3: PAC recommendation: As proposals for building new nuclear stations are firmed up, the Department needs to learn lessons from AGR decommissioning for how the decommissioning of new nuclear stations will be funded, for example linking contributions more closely to reliable estimates of liabilities, and building in mechanisms for adjusting contributions from operators should estimates of liabilities increase. 3.1 The department agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and will respond by August 2022. Target implementation date: August 2022 3.2 The funded decommissioning plan (FDP) policies in place to support the development of new nuclear stations already build upon what was learnt from the AGR stations. 3.3 The Energy Act 2008 requires prospective operators of new nuclear power stations to have a Funded Decommissioning Programme (FDP) approved by the Secretary of State before nuclear-related construction can begin. The FDP is submitted by prospective nuclear power station operators to the BEIS Secretary of State, who must approve it before nuclear- related construction can begin. The FDP is intended to ensure that operators regularly put funding aside throughout the operating life of the plant in order to meet the future cost of decommissioning. 3.4 The specific design of the FDP arrangement is flexible and up to the operator, but it must meet the requirements as set out in the Energy Act 2008 and is expected to follow BEIS guidance (published in 2011) and methodology for determining the cost of nuclear waste management. The HPC FDP also includes a rachet that allows contributions to be increased as the liability estimate changes. 3.5 The FDP arrangements provide for periodic reviews of sufficiency and for the possibility of operator contributions to increase as required.